News

The third annual AIC (Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia Cinematografica – Association of Italian Cinematographers) Micro Salon Italia, organized by Daniele Nannuzzi – just reelected as AIC President – and Luciano Tovoli, with the help of Simone Marra, secretary general AIC, moved from its original Cinecittà Studios Stage 1 & 2 location to E.U.R.’s Salone delle Fontane. This is the same location that Federico Fellini used in the 70s as one of the sets for “Boccaccio 70” starring Anita Ekberg. read more…

It’s been a busy day in Munich. ARRI unveiled a new series of Master Anamorphic Flare Sets. Each of the 7 ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lenses gets its own individual and easily replaceable front and rear glass element. They can be used individually or in combination. This results in 4 Master Ana permutations: no flare set, front element flare only, rear only, and combination front and rear. read more…

The ALEXA SXT cameras have an updated Codex recording “engine,” similar to the system built into the ALEXA 65. It uses the latest SXR Capture Drives, which offer an astounding data rate of 20GB/s. ALEXA SXT cameras have a new, internal media bay, developed by Codex, that accepts the latest SXR Capture Drives. Adaptors let you use existing XR Capture Drives, as well as SxS cards and CFast 2.0 cards. read more…

A conversation with Ben Smithard, BSC about his work as Cinematographer on “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” released in the USA on March 6, 2015. JON FAUER Tell us about the style of “Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and… read more…

Galerie Cinema is an exhibition of photos by filmmakers. It’s open to the public from March 10–April 10, 2015 at Payne Whitney House, 972 5th Avenue (at 79th Street) in New York. The white-marbled mansion was designed by Stanford White and… read more…

Images of AFC Micro Salon, Feb 6-7. This was the 15th year of the annual expo and seminars held at la fémis in Montmartre–organized by the Association of French Cinematographers. Photos by Garry Yankson and Hugues Faure from EMIT. Click… read more…

Interview with Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of Leica Camera, on the Leica Summilux-C cine lenses and the Academy Scientific and Engineering Award. Leica Summilux-C lenses got a Sci-Tech Oscar on Saturday. As the lenses were developed, I had interviewed most of the cast of characters involved in developing them. But we had never really discussed the point of view of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of Leica Camera. Here is his interesting narrative on how these lenses came about.

La Cinémathèque française just published an online illustrated catalog of their historical motion picture equipment collection. It also includes the CNC’s (National Center for Cinema). The French Cinematheque has acquired, nurtured and maintained one of the finest equipment collections in the world, thanks… read more…

Congratulations to Leica and Tiffen. They will receive a Sci-Tech Awards from the Motion Picture Academy (aka Scientific and Technical Oscars) on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Here is the official AMPAS announcement: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 21 scientific and technical achievements represented by 58 individual award recipients will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. read more…

AJA presented their new CION 35mm Digital Camera at the ASC last night, and is conducting hands-on demos in Hollywood today. The first CIONs are now in Paris and EMIT is busy accessorizing. Here are pictures of their Emitized/ Pagified / Chroszielized/Transvideoified/Ronfordized/Cookeified AJA CION. read more…

Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Corporation, was awarded the EMMY Technology & Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award. He was introduced by Chris Dodd, former Senator, currently Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Mr. Hirai graciously accepted the awarded with a wry reflection on Sony’s recent hacking ordeal. He noted how the Christmas holidays can be a stressful time–but certainly not as bad as his. read more…

On January 8, Hiroshi Kiriyama was awarded a Technology & Engineering EMMY. Mr. Kiriyama is General Manager of Sony’s Content Creation Professional Design Team, responsible for professional camera development, including the F55. read more…

Dariusz Wolski, ASC attended film school in Lodz, Poland. Then he went to New York, tried to get a job, worked as a camera assistant and moved to L.A. where he started in music videos, commercials, and movies. His many credits include recently released “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” directed by Ridley Scott. He is currently working on “The Martian” in Budapest. 2015 marks the 80th anniversary of Angénieux. To kick off the New Year, here’s an interview we did with Dariusz the other day. His comments on working with zooms are very interesting. This is part of FDTimes’ work-in-progress “History of Angénieux” Booklet. read more…